This is something I have always thought about. Does doing something often enough over and over again cause that thing to lose its meaning somewhat?

As a kid I had the benefit of going to Christian schools. My mom worked hard for me to have that privilege. One thing about Christian schools versus most public schools is saying the Pledge of Allegiance daily. Every morning we would say the Pledge of the Allegiance to the flag, both the U.S. and Texas flags and since it was a Christian school, we also had a Pledge of Allegiance to the Bible and to the Christian flag.

For those unaware of these pledges, they went like this: “I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s Holy Word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I will hide its words in my heart that I might not sin against God.”

“I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again with life and liberty to all who believe.”

Well, saying the pledges every single day became almost robotic, I must say. I could be half asleep and the words would just come out because they were memorized so well. I can honestly say as a child, there were MANY times I said those words and they held no real meaning for me at that time.

And I think that tends to happen with anything that is repeated enough. It becomes so much of a routine that you just go through them daily without really considering the meaning behind it anymore. I’m sure I’m not the only one that goes through normal daily routines like a zombie almost without having to stop and think about what I am actually doing.

This makes me think about the consequences of such a thing and whether something should be done to bring back the meaning. Would it have maybe been better as a child if we had just done the pledge once a week instead of daily? I don’t know. I do believe we should daily realize our blessings and God but how do you change it up some so it becomes less of a routine? I know the teacher would pick different kids to hold the flag each day in front of the class or hold the Bible. I suppose we could have done the pledges in a different order to change it up or something of that nature but I’m not sure if it would have been possible to make every person feel the meaning of the words every day they say them.

Some things in life are not necessarily bad if they become robotic but for important words we speak aloud, maybe sometimes we need to sit down and slowly speak each word and think about the meaning in depth. Such as “I love you”…..It scares me to think saying I love you to my spouse and one day to my kids could become so routine to me that I say it without MEANING it. Does anyone else worry about that?

I mean, I love my husband to death, without question but do I say it so much in a day that I am just replying to my husband with it and not really SAYING it at that moment? I guess if I am constantly thinking on this problem, it will make me more aware of really meaning it each time I am saying it. And if I DO love him, then even robotically (not sure if this is a word!) wouldn’t it still mean the same?

Maybe this is just something that will always nag at me…..For now, I will say I love my husband and no matter how many times I say it, I mean it….whether half asleep or fully awake, I still love him. Just sometimes the words may be stated less coherently…..besides isn’t it a good thing if we say I love you to each other so MUCH that it does become routine?

“He couldn’t see why people made such a fuss about people eating their silly old fruit anyway, but life would be a lot less fun if they didn’t. And there was never an apple, in Adam’s opinion, that wasn’t worth the trouble you got into for eating it.” ~from Good Omens